<span>The Waffen SS or the Armed SS were Hitler’s elite forces during  WWII. They were the forces that were feared by the enemy and praised by  their allies. The two lightning bolts on the collar tabs and on their  helmets were the mark of the soldiers of the New Order believing in the  final victory of the Reich. The Waffen SS grew into a huge force of  thirty-eight combat divisions comprising over 950,000 men. In the  Nuremberg Trials, the Waffen SS was condemned as part of a criminal  organisation, and therefore Waffen SS veterans were denied many of the  rights afforded other German combat veterans. However the Nuremberg  Trials exempted conscripts from that condemnation.On several occasions,  the Waffen SS was criticised by Heer commanders for their reckless  disregard for casualties while taking or holding objectives. However,  the Waffen SS divisions eventually proved themselves to a skeptical Heer  as capable soldiers.The poor initial performance of the Waffen SS units  was mainly due to the emphasis on political indoctrination rather than  proper military training before the war. This was largely due to the  shortage of experienced NCOs, who preferred to stay with the regular  army. Despite this, the experience gained from the Polish, French and  Balkan campaigns and the peculiarly egalitarian form of training soon  turned Waffen SS units into elite formations.These are the stories of  the men that once were part of this elite force. In this book you get a  bit of history about the SS and Waffen SS, the war crimes committed by  them and against them, their training, but most important of all you'll  get the stories from veterans of the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, Das  Reich, Totenkopf, Wiking, Hohenstaufen, Maria Theresia, Langemarck,  SS-Fallschirmjägerbataillon 500 and Luftwaffe Fallschirmjäger, Italien,  Wallonie, Nederland, 1st Estonian, and the notorious Dirlewanger  Brigade. Seven decades after the war they finally have a voice...</span>

Voices of the Waffen SS PDF

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